Drone Safe Register Blog: YouTubers beware, your videos can now be used as evidence.

If you know a Drone pilot, please forward this article to them. It might save them a court case, fines or bans from flying.

To those who don’t check pilot credentials: You are putting your business and your reputation at risk, because you are also liable for facilitating illegal activities.

Read the 1 minute guide on how to tell if your pilot is legal. All DSR pilots are legal and insured, and you can be assured that when you hire one for your project, things will be done properly, safely, legally, and will be able to provide all of the documentation.

Ask yourself: would you get in a car that has ‘taxi’ scrawled on a piece of paper, taped to the passenger window, or would you prefer a licensed cab with a driver who has proper insurance? Would you feel safe or would you be concerned that in the event of an accident you would not be compensated?

Pilots being paid for work without CAA permissions: Your time is up.

Stop while you have the chance, or get a license and do things lawfully.
Your previous videos can still be used as evidence against you, you should consider removing them.

Starting this summer, the CPS will begin actively looking and accepting evidence of illegal flights (over towns, beyond 500m range for example). These videos will be used as evidence against users. There are also a number of UK businesses based around locating and prosecuting illegal pilots, with the bill being footed by the illegal operator.

A significant effort will be put into tracking down these illegal operators, and they will be perused and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

The wind is changing, illegal operators, and you would be well advised to stop carrying out flights that are:

• For valuable consideration
• In or over protected areas
• Near Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s)
• At distances greater than 500m or over 120m (the legal limits)
• Breaking local bylaws
• Over towns, congested areas, or near people or property who haven’t consented to the activities

Put simply, all operators who ‘just do it’ have no regard for others personal safety, the law, bylaws or protection orders that are in place for good reason.

They are unprofessional, often become aggressive when challenged about their activities, and more importantly, are never as good as the real thing – Drone Safe Register pilots are at the top of their game, they know the industry, the technology and most importantly, the rules that keep people safe.

If you fly your drone for ‘beer money’, consider selling it and using that money for something more productive that is within the law.

Illegal pilots; you know who you are, and be assured, your time is up.

To those wanting to use Drone services, you are advised to best to bookmark the DSR instant quote now, and not wasting time with sub standard pilots.

The UK drone industry is still regarded as being in it’s early days, however Drone Safe Register (and it’s industry leading network of professional drone pilots) is at the leading edge of legislation and law interpretation. Members converse regularly on these topics as a sound understanding is paramount in their businesses.

Something worth keeping in mind is that the CAA have a safety first approach for all operations, be it drones, gilders or 747s landing at Heathrow. Obviously, this is a good thing. It helps to ensure operations involving drones in the UK are safe and controlled.

DSR pilots will always carry out the due diligence and preflight checks to ensure a legal flight.

DSR prides itself in ensuring compliance with the law – this is something that outside of the DSR sphere that cannot be guaranteed in the same way. The writer of this article, who holds a PfCO is aware of a number of drone operators with permissions in his local area that still manage to break the law. Having a license doesn’t mean the operator can do what he or she wants – it just means they know what the rules are and have permission to fly for valuable consideration.

There are often instances when it is necessary to contact authorities to organise flights. For example local councils, police, park rangers might be informed or asked permission to fly. Landowners however do not need notification to enable a flight over their land, so long as the drone that is flying is kept more than 50m away from buildings, the land itself and of course people on that land.

There is no reason to pay anyone anything to obtain overflight permissions, unless there is a bylaw that specifically states there are fees.

Sometimes notice is needed, often 28 days prior to the flight.

locations that should be notified of drone overflight:

• Nuclear sites/installations/plants – if a flight needs to be undertaken within 3.2km (2 miles) of a nuclear power site, the CAA will be able to help organise this. There are some specific restrictions involved with flights in these areas.
• Airfelds and airports. Generally best avoided anyway.
• Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI’s) – Natural England are responsible for maintaining these sites, with duties and responsibilities being delegated to local authorities.
• Protected Areas – marine reserves and bird sanctuaries – it is almost certainly a necessity to contact them ahead of flights to ensure you are not unnecessarily disturbing wildlife.

  

  Wedding Venues marked above (green dots) are particularly at risk  of inadvertently breaking the rules.

  Five venues are well within the distances that would require notification. Permission may be granted by the venue for take off and landing, however they are still within the distances that mean prior consent to fly in the airspace is needed.

Drone Safe Register Pilots are responsible for their flights, and they need to protect their business and reputation, providing clients the best service and ultimately the legal backing that is necessary to sleep at night.

To help put this in context: Take for example a standard 50m separation requirement, then think vertically… there are various safety considerations that will stop an operation, but in principle the landowner below a drone at 50m altitude does not need to give consent for the overflight.

There are increasing numbers of reports of less accommodating organizations that feel that it is their place to re-write the rules on behalf of the CAA. What they are trying to do is not actually enforceable, nor ethical, as PfCO pilots are allowed to fly in locations (such as over the Thames in London) so long as they maintain the 50m separations, and have permission for take off and landing at a location that allows flight within the 500m range allowed. There are numerous references regarding this in CAP722 and CAP393 for further clarification.